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A Seat at the Table

Empowering Girls and Women Initiative

How can a government be of the people, by the people, and for the people when its leaders don't reflect the diversity of its population?

When the 114th U.S. Congress convened in January 2015, it was the most diverse it has ever been. And yet, less than 20 percent of representatives and senators are women. At the state level, women do slightly better, making up almost a quarter of legislators and elected executives in the United States. But only 12 percent of state governors are female.

FairVote is exploring a wide range of outside-the-box strategies to tackle the underrepresentation of women in American politics. And we're helping them evaluate whether those ideas can work from a legal standpoint. We're answering questions like:

What actions can parties, political action committees, and governments take to recruit and financially support women candidates?

Could multi-winner legislative districts and ranked-choice voting incentivize more women to run for office?

What are other countries with higher percentages of female representation doing differently?

We're working with FairVote to get the right structural support in place so we can see an equal representation of women running for office, winning, and leading our governmental institutions within our lifetimes.